Pork Congee @ Blk 237 Serangoon Avenue 3

Pork Congee @ Blk 237 Serangoon Avenue 3

Food Quality: 0.5 =)
Ambience: 0.0 =)
Service: 0.0 =)
Value: 0.0 =)
Overall: 0.5 =)

Cost: S$2.50 (includes an egg)
Will I return again: Yes. It's comfort food!

Let's be very clear here. This is a truly decent bowl of porridge and I have ordered this quite often at this particular coffeeshop.

The porridge served is more like cantonese congee, with heavily broken down rice grains in a thick rice broth. It comes topped with spring onions and fried shallots. A fuss-free meal that screams out 'comfort food'. Piping hot you tiao (Fried dough fritters) may be purchased separately (and it usually comes straight from the wok) from another stall (S$0.70 apiece).

The setting is a non-air-conditioned neighbourhood coffeeshop, which means it can get warm and humid. Fortunately, there are two workarounds to this problem: (1) Go in the morning for breakfast, before the midday sun bears down upon you; (2) Go at night, when it gets more cooling. Would advise going in the morning as there is a limited supply of congee. Tables are clean but you may find yourself sharing tables during weekend mornings as it does get quite crowded then.

Food is served efficiently, usually within 5 minutes of the order. Nothing exceptional about the service in your local coffeeshop. The portion is adequate, but the congee-to-meat ratio is kinda disproportionate.

Upon the first mouthful, the flavour of the meat, congee and seasoning explodes in your mouth. And that's where I first noticed that it lacked a certain fragrance: sesame oil. I do not know since when have they stopped adding sesame oil into the congee, but it was the one thing that stood out during the meal. And I noticed it immediately. But it's not a big boo boo as service recovery was quick and a serving dish was quickly prepared with the sesame oil. 

In all, it was a satisfying meal and will recommend it if you are in the area and want to grab something that's not too filling (for breakfast, at least) or oily (standard Singapore fare can be quite oily).